KUCHING: Sarawak sees potential in charging carbon emitters for storing their emissions in the state’s forests, although global mechanisms to value carbon storage remain inconsistent and are still being refined.
Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the idea of valuing forest-based carbon storage stemmed from the role of forests as carbon sinks, where emissions produced by industrialised countries were absorbed by ecosystems in regions such as Sarawak.
He said international discussions on carbon trading had shifted towards recognising that this absorption was no longer free, as it carried economic value, although global mechanisms to price carbon storage were still evolving.
“Now we have what is called carbon sinks and carbon trading. We tell our people, ‘The world now has a protocol where carbon is traded. Industrial countries produce carbon, and this carbon is absorbed by your trees. For that, there is a price’.
“What we do now is to value the carbon levy. So Sarawak will charge those countries that emit carbon. We store their carbon, we charge them. That means another stream of revenue for Sarawak,’” he said.
He was speaking during the townhall with the Premier, organised by TVS in conjunction with his ninth anniversary in office last night (Jan 13).
However, he cautioned that existing protocols to value carbon storage remained inconsistent, noting that institutions such as the World Bank were still working on frameworks to determine how carbon stored in ecosystems should be measured and priced.
Abang Johari said this was why a clear legal and regulatory framework was necessary before such mechanisms could be fully implemented.
“You must have a regulatory framework. That’s why I passed a new law on gas emissions, and I believe we were the first before the federal government passed their law, and they used us as a model with the Ministry of Economy,” he said.
Abang Johari said public understanding of carbon and the green economy was equally important, stressing that basic scientific processes needed to be explained before communities could appreciate the value of forests.
He cited photosynthesis — through which trees absorb carbon and produce oxygen essential for human survival — as the foundation of concepts such as carbon sinks and carbon trading.
He said once people understood that forests had economic value beyond logging, attitudes towards conservation would change, with reforestation becoming more attractive than deforestation.
“When people understand this, they will not cut trees. They will reforest,” he said.
